Professor Steve Goldup FRSC

Professor Steve Goldup

School of Chemistry
Professor of Chemistry

Contact details

Address
School of Chemistry
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Steve is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham, having previously held positions at the University of Southampton, Queen Mary University of London and the University of Edinburgh.

Research in the Goldup Group focusses on developing new synthetic methods to make mechanically interlocked molecules, particularly structures that express mechanical chirality, and the application of rotaxanes and catenanes in sensing, catalysis, materials and medicine.

He has delivered over 130 invited lectures all over the world and published over 70 articles in peer reviewed journals. For an up-to-date publication list with citation information, see Google Scholar

Qualifications

Professor of Chemistry:

  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2014
  • PhD from Imperial College in Organic Synthesis in 2005
  • MChem from the University of Oxford in 2001

Teaching

Steve has taught chemistry at Imperial College, the University of Edinburgh, Queen Mary University of London and University of Southampton, and as a Visiting Professor in the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

He has lectured on a range of topics including organic chemistry (carbonyl chemistry, sugar chemistry, nucleotide chemistry), physical organic chemistry, spectroscopy and bioinorganic chemistry.

Research

Research in the Goldup Group focuses on the effect of mechanical bonding on the properties and applications of molecules. The Group have developed some of the most efficient rotaxane-forming reactions disclosed to date (ACIE 2011; Chem Sci 2015) and extended them to multicomponent catenanes (JACS 2018) and stereo-defined [n]rotaxanes (JACS 2016; ACIE 2016). Using this methodology, they have developed mechanically stabilised organometallic species (JACS 2013, Chem. Sci. 2020,), interlocked catalysts (ACIE 2015, ACIE 2022), sensors (ACIE 2018; ACIE 2018), ligands to augment the properties of transition metal ions (JACS 2019; ACIE 2021), luminophores (Chem. Sci. 2021, ACIE 2021) and oligonucleotides (JACS 2020). In particular, they have revolutionised the synthesis of mechanically chiral molecules, beginning with the first method to make mechanically planar chiral rotaxanes without chiral stationary phase HPLC (JACS 2014). Since this breakthrough they have disclosed method for the stereoselective synthesis of mechanically chiral rotaxanes (ACIE 2018, Nat. Chem. 2022, Chem 2023) and catenanes (Chem 2019, JACS 2022, Nat. Chem. 2022, Nat. Chem. 2023). Alongside these synthetic breakthroughs, they have provided a framework for the discussion of mechanical stereochemistry and in the process identified new mechanical stereogenic units (CSR 2018, Nat. Chem. 2022, ChemRxiv 2022), which have also yielded to their stereoselective approach. In 2020 they demonstrated the first example of enantioselective catalysis with a mechanically chiral ligand (Chem 2020), highlighting the long-term potential of the molecules that their methodological breakthroughs now make accessible.

Other activities

  • Associate Editor of Chemical Science (2018 to present)
  • Secretary and Treasurer of the MASC RSC Interest Group (2016 – 2023)
  • Co-founded the RSM vMASC online seminar series
  • Co-chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Artificial Molecular Switches and Motors (2019)
  • Member of the Advisory Board for Chemical Society Reviews (2012 – 2018)
  • Co-founded the RSC MASC Early Career Meeting (2017)
  • Co-organised the RSC MASC annual meeting (2012)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Saady, A, Malcolm, G, Fitzpatrick, M, Pairault, N, Tizzard, G, Mohammed, S, Tavassoli, A & Goldup, S 2024, 'A Platform Approach to Cleavable Macrocycles for the Controlled Disassembly of Mechanically Caged Molecules', Angewandte Chemie (International Edition) , vol. 2024, e202400344. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202400344

Gallagher, P, Savoini, A, Saady, A, Maynard, JRJ, Butler, P, Tizzard, GJ & Goldup, S 2024, 'Facial Selectivity in Mechanical Bond Formation: Axially Chiral Enantiomers and Geometric Isomers from a Simple Prochiral Macrocycle', Journal of the American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c14329

Goldup, SM 2024, 'The End of the Beginning of Mechanical Stereochemistry', Accounts of Chemical Research, vol. 57, no. 12, pp. 1696-1708. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.4c00195

Savoini, A, Gallagher, P, Saady, A & Goldup, S 2024, 'The Final Stereogenic Unit of [2]Rotaxanes: Type 2 Geometric Isomers', Journal of the American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c14594

Pairault, N, Rizzi, F, Lozano, D, Jamieson, EMG, Tizzard, GJ & Goldup, SM 2023, 'A catenane that is topologically achiral despite being composed of oriented rings', Nature Chemistry, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 781–786. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01194-1

Zhang, S, Rodríguez-Rubio, A, Saady, A, Tizzard, GJ & Goldup, SM 2023, 'A chiral macrocycle for the stereoselective synthesis of mechanically planar chiral rotaxanes and catenanes', Chem, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 1195-1207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2023.01.009

Aprahamian, I & Goldup, SM 2023, 'Non-equilibrium Steady States in Catalysis, Molecular Motors, and Supramolecular Materials: Why Networks and Language Matter', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 145, no. 26, pp. 14169-14183. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c12665

Saady, A & Goldup, SM 2023, 'Triazole formation and the click concept in the synthesis of interlocked molecules', Chem, vol. 9, no. 8, pp. 2110-2127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2023.07.001

de Juan, A, Lozano, D, Heard, AW, Jinks, MA, Suarez, JM, Tizzard, GJ & Goldup, SM 2022, 'A chiral interlocking auxiliary strategy for the synthesis of mechanically planar chiral rotaxanes', Nature Chemistry, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 179-187. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-021-00825-9

Rodríguez-Rubio, A, Savoini, A, Modicom, F, Butler, P & Goldup, SM 2022, 'A co-conformationally "topologically" chiral catenane', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 144, no. 27, pp. 11927-11932. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c02029

Maynard, JRJ, Galmés, B, Stergiou, AD, Symes, MD, Frontera, A & Goldup, SM 2022, 'Anion–π catalysis enabled by the mechanical bond**', Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, vol. 61, no. 12, e202115961. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202115961

Jinks, MA, Howard, M, Rizzi, F, Goldup, SM, Burnett, AD & Wilson, AJ 2022, 'Direct detection of hydrogen bonds in supramolecular systems using 1H-15N Heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence spectroscopy', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 144, no. 50, pp. 23127-23133. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c10742

Maynard, JRJ, Gallagher, P, Lozano, D, Butler, P & Goldup, SM 2022, 'Mechanically axially chiral catenanes and noncanonical mechanically axially chiral rotaxanes', Nature Chemistry, vol. 14, no. 9, pp. 1038-1044. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-00973-6

Comment/debate

de Juan, A, Lozano, D, Heard, AW, Jinks, MA, Suarez, JM, Tizzard, GJ & Goldup, SM 2022, 'Author correction: A chiral interlocking auxiliary strategy for the synthesis of mechanically planar chiral rotaxanes', Nature Chemistry, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 239-239. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-021-00875-z

Review article

Heard, AW, Suárez, JM & Goldup, SM 2022, 'Controlling catalyst activity, chemoselectivity and stereoselectivity with the mechanical bond', Nature Reviews Chemistry, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 182-196. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-021-00348-4

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